The Olympic men's hockey tournament just got a big jolt, and its epicenter was in Columbus.

Russia announced early Saturday morning that Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, appearing in his first career Olympic Winter Games, will start in goal against the United States on Saturday morning (7:30 a.m. ET, NBC Sports Network).

It represents Bobrovsky's first career start in the Olympics and for a little added dramatics, it comes against Team USA in a huge game for both teams.

The winner of Saturday's game assumes control of Group A as the preliminary round winds down, and will head into the quarterfinal round in the driver's seat. Bobrovsky starts in place of Semyon Varlamov, who appeared in Russia's opening game against Slovenia earlier this week (a 5-2 victory).

Jonathan Quick makes his second straight start for the Americans, who are coming off a 7-1 victory over Slovakia in their first game on Thursday. Both the U.S. and Russia are playing their second of three games in the preliminary round; Team USA follows up Saturday's game against Russia with a game against Slovenia on Sunday.

A reminder to Blue Jackets fans: join us for an Olympic viewing party (U.S. vs. Russia style) at the RBar Arena District later this morning! The party starts at 7 a.m., and there will be drink specials, an appearance by former Blue Jacket and 2006 Olympic gold medalist Fredrik Modin, and of course, our guy Jody Shelley.